The first generation of the welfare debates has focused on articulating the main drive which leads the development of the welfare state. They mainly exploit political or economic variables, such as industrialization (Wilensky and Lebaux 1958; Wilensky 1975), power resources mobilization of labor class (Korpi 1983; Esping-Andersen 1985), or roles of states (Flora and Alber 1981; Skocpol and Amen...

By employing American state-level data from 1999 to 2008, this paper explores how the recent immigrant influx has influenced public welfare spending in the American states. By integrating the race/ethnicity and globalization compensation theory, I hypothesize that immigration will increase welfare spending in states with a bleak job market and exclusive state immigrant welfare policy; in contra...